A Lesson in Sixth Senses

Being the only American on the farm means that I am now the resident expert on all things American, whether I know anything about them or not. I field questions about everything from farm equipment made in Wisconsin to Donald Trump to guns (“you have one, right?”) to what I eat for breakfast (“waffles and sugary cereal?”). Because my major has the word “environment” in it, I am also “the scientist,” a laughable title for someone who has studied science for a grand total of 3 years.

I can’t complain, though; it has certainly led to some interesting conversations. As a biodynamic farmer and someone who both greatly respects and somewhat mistrusts science, the host in particular has been quite interesting to talk to. Biodynamic farming is a bit mystical, with its focus on planetary rhythms and some, shall we say, interesting rituals (one of the other WWOOFers, who needs to write a scientific report on the farm for school, was outraged that burying a horn filled with cow manure is considered integral to the functioning of the farm).

At dinner (or “tea,” as every meal seems to be called here) a few nights ago, the host was discussing finding a place to dig a well at a new plot of land she had purchased. It was a difficult conversation to follow – she kept talking about being pulled one way or another, but she couldn’t tell if it was just her arms getting tired, but she thought she had found a good water source. I must have looked completely bewildered, because she turned to me and asked if I had heard of dowsing. At first I thought “dousing,” which led to even more confusion, but no, this was something quite different.

“You can find anything this way – you just need a strong guide, usually a branch in a “Y” shape. And how it works - forget about scientific explanations, it’s a sixth sense, something in your gut that pulls you towards what you want to find.” And a good dowser, she explained, is simply someone with good instincts, a good sense of the world, and a willingness to follow their gut without questioning.

Later on, I did my own research on dowsing, just out of curiosity. Turns out, it's been used quite a lot throughout history, not just for digging wells, but for finding heretics to arrest and even to locate people buried in an avalanche (all courtesy of the Wikipedia page, by the way - sometimes it's nice to not worry about digging through journal articles and choosing the right citation style, okay?). The science nerd in me was quite happy to find that dowsing has been the subject of a surprising amount of scientific studies, those the results have not exactly been supportive of the technique.

A few days later, both the host and the professional dowser (yes, that does exist, apparently) she had hired independently chose the same spot for the well. So I guess maybe there’s something to it, though it might just be a combination of knowing the signs to look for and a bit of luck. Suffice to say that I, with all of my rationalizing, would not make a good dowser.

Though the house has solar panels on the roof and the philosophy around which the farm is run is, for the most part, based in science, on the car ride back from the dowsing expedition, the host admitted that she can’t help but have reservations about all of this science. Sure, climate change is real and caused by humans, but how on earth can these models, she wondered, take everything into account? And as for my topic of interest – persistent organic pollutants in the environment and, for my co-op, in food – do we really need to put so much effort into these measurements? Do we even know that the compounds are harmful? And, more than anything, how on earth can scientists be so certain of everything?

As I picked through facts learned in environmental science class, figures I had seen in scientific papers, and all of the relevant scientific knowledge that I possess, I realized that science and reason were not what she was looking for. As someone who became interested in science a bit later than most, I have grappled with many of the same questions quite recently. And although all of these well-reasoned figures and numbers are plenty convincing to those who understand them, to everyone else, they are just one more thing that separates those scientists in their ivory tower from everyone else.

So I tried a different tactic. Not a dumbed-down one, per se, but one that I hoped was more tolerant of the fact that not everyone is fluent in chemistry acronyms or appreciative of a good correlation coefficient. I don’t know that the host was completely convinced and satisfied with all of my explanations, but I also don’t believe that she’s written me off as someone too isolated in that ivory tower to understand reality. So I’ll consider it a small victory for now, but also an area for improvement - and further discussion, I am sure.